two men were hanged for burning a copy of the Quran

This is yet another and dramatic example of the bloody repression carried out in Iran. Two men have been executed by hanging in Iran for burning a copy of the Koran and insulting the Prophet Muhammad, an Iranian judicial authority news agency announced on Monday (May 8th). Sadrollah Fazeli Zare and Youssef Mehrdad were found guilty of having “insulted the Prophet Muhammad and other blasphemies including burning the Koran”, reports the agency.

In March 2021, one of the defendants admitted to posting on a Telegram account, created for “discredit the Islamists”, said insults. According to justice, Mehrdad was arrested in Ardabil, in the northwest of the country. He had created “a well-attended group” on the internet for “propagate atheism” in Iran. A video “alluding to the burning of the Quran” was discovered on the defendant’s phone and reposted to his account. Examining Fazeli Zare’s electronic devices, a “popular account” doing the “promotion of atheism” And “insulting religious values” was identified.

Iran is the second country with the highest number of executions after China, according to several NGOs, including Amnesty International. In 2022, the number of people executed was up 75% compared to a year earlier, two NGOs, Iran Human Rights (IHR), based in Norway, and Together Against the Death Penalty (ECPM), based in Norway, said in April. in Paris.